Gulfstream Park: Dullahan back on track for Dubai

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Dale Romans picked up the pace a little earlier this week with Dullahan, sending his three-time Grade 1 winner out to breeze a half-mile in 48.68 seconds on Wednesday. It was just Dullahan’s second breeze since he returned to training here last month.

Dullahan is scheduled to head to Dubai along with stablemate Little Mike to compete at Meydan Racecourse on March 9 in prep races for the Dubai World Cup program three weeks later. Dullahan is being pointed for the $10 million World Cup, while Little Mike could run in either the main event or the $5 million Sheema Classic on the grass earlier that evening.

“We were a little behind the 8-ball when he first got here, but he’s coming along quickly and we’ll be ready for the trip,” Romans said of Dullahan, who won both the Pacific Classic and Blue Grass during his 3-year-old campaign last year.

Romans said he has a couple of options for both Dullahan and Little Mike when they prep next month at Meydan, but is unsure which race either of his stars will compete in that night.

“There’s a race at a mile and another at a mile and one-quarter in the book,” said Romans. “I’ll figure it out as we get closer. There’s a chance they could run against one another, but I doubt it.”

Romans originally had secured the services of John Velazquez to ride Little Mike in his prep race on March 9 but said on Wednesday that those plans are on hold. Little Mike continues to train forwardly for his first start since concluding his outstanding 2012 campaign with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, breezing five-eighths in 1:01.02 and galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.39 over the main track here Thursday.